Travel Procurement - November 2016

AIR TRAVEL

Etihad Airways and partner Jet Airways together will add 28 weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and India next year, including three Indian cities not currently served by the carriers.

On Feb. 1, Etihad, which currently has 175 weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and 11 Indian cities, will double its service between Abu Dhabi and Ahmedabad to twice daily. Additionally, it will add a fourth daily flight to Kozhikode, in India’s southwestern Kerala province, on March 26. Jet Airways, in which Etihad has a minority stake, will add daily service between Abu Dhabi and Tiruchirappalli in southern India on Feb.

1 and to each Kannur and Chandigarh later in the year, depending on when those airports are ready for the flights. On Jan. 1 5, the carrier also will add a second daily service between Abu Dhabi and New Delhi. All the new services are pending government approval.

Former Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson has stepped down as executive chairman of the carrier’s board of directors, ending his brief stint in the role. Anderson served as Delta CEO from August 2007 until he retired in May, at which time he became executive chairman. Former Home Depot chairman and CEO Francis Blake, a Delta board member since July 2014, will succeed Anderson as a nonexecutive chairman.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s supervisory board approved the acquisition of all remaining shares of Brussels Airlines parent company SN Airholding.

Lufthansa plans to complete the acquisition in early

2017, following a shareholder vote. Lufthansa bought

45 percent of Brussels Airlines in 2009 and now is exercising that deal’s option to buy the remaining 55 percent of shares.

The average U.S. inflation-adjusted domestic airfare fell 9.6 percent year over year in the second quarter to $390, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That marks six consecutive quarters of decline. Average fares do not include ancillary fees or factor in frequent-fly-er or zero fares.

LODGING

China’s HNA Group will
acquire a 25 percent
equity interest in Hilton
Worldwide from Black-
stone. The deal is valued
at approximately $6.5
billion, bringing Blackstone’s
interest in Hilton down to 21
percent. HNA will own 25
percent not only of Hilton
Worldwide but also of the
planned spinoffs of Park
Hotels & Resorts and Hilton
Grand Vacations. HNA
made headlines this year
when a unit of the Chinese
conglomerate purchased
Carlson Hotels. HNA also
has a 15 percent stake in
Red Lion Hotels Corp. and
is the largest shareholder
in Spain’s NH Hotels. The
transaction is expected to
close in the first quarter of
next year.

U.S. corporate hotel rates could increase even less than first forecast for 2017, according to Bjorn Hanson, a clinical professor for the NYU School of Professional Studies Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism. Hanson has revised his previous projection that corporate rates will increase between 3. 25 percent and 4 percent, saying now that they will increase between 2.75 percent and 3. 5 percent. Hanson’s estimates are based on interviews with hotel industry executives and corporate travel executives and on analysis of industry financial data, press releases and hotel and brand websites. His revision comes in light of slowing rate growth in the U.S. hotel industry and lackluster RevPAR gains from hoteliers during the third quarter.

InterContinental Hotels Group saw revenue per available room increase 1.3 percent year over year during the third quarter. The company did not report specific occupancy and average daily rate figures, though its media release pegged U.S. occupancy levels at above 75 percent. IHG opened 7,000 rooms, or 51 hotels, during the quarter and removed 3,000 rooms, or 22 hotels. CFO Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson said the company will continue to remove properties in the interest of improving the portfolio. IHG signed 19,000